Anthonys' Garden

"Anthony's Garden," wc/ink on paper

Last weekend the sketchers decided to visit different parts of the city for plein air work. I went to a private garden in the Sherman Hill district of Des Moines, which is an area of houses and apartments dating to a period from the late 19th century to the early 20th, with many fine examples of Victorian architecture. One of the places we sometimes go is this private garden, which Anthony, the owner and gardener, has made into an oasis of green filled with flowers, fountains, any much more. 

It was a warm, sunny day and my companion and I had a wonderful couple of hourse. 

The workflow on this one began as a graphite drawing, then it was painted, then inked.  

Honeysuckle Haze

"Honeysuckle Haze, watercolor on paper, 7x5

This watercolor dates to a few weeks ago, after my post about the hazy green of spring, but before warming temperatures and abundant rain brought the flush of new green to trees and undergrowth. These hardy, brushy plants open tiny yellow-green buds over dark ground and twiggy wood before nearly any other plants. The creek even looks dark this time of year. 

Even two weeks after my first sketch the tiny honeysuckle leaves had opened only a little, their green haze thicker and more obscuring. The other visible greens came from sparse grass along the banks. .

I painted this from my studio window, looking north along Druid Hill Creek. 
 

State Park

The weather last weekend was particularly fine--warmer, sunny, and less wind. The sketch group went to Walnut Wood State Park, which is only five miles or so from where we meet. We had anticipated that a big field of bluebells would be in flower, but warm weather had accelerated their fading, so none could be found. Nonetheless, I sat at a picnic bench and sketched one of the park buildings. I changed it from a rather rustic sanitary facility to a cozy cabin, but otherwise the scene is pretty accurate. The west entrance of the park is at the end of the receding road. The most enjoyable part of this little piece was the dark values. 
 

Courtyard

When the weather moderates in the spring, people come to the Des Moines Art Center courtyard for lunch. A small cafe comprising maybe ten tables expands with outdoor seating. It's a cool, shady spot with a big reflecting pool, views into the galleries and a big bronze sculpture. 

Last week I spend an hour there, sketching the contribution of Richard Meier to the architecture of the Art Center. The original building, opened in 1948, was designed by Eliel Saarinen, the renowned Finnish architect who designed many landmark buildings in the 1940s and 1950s. The second building, by I.M. Pei, who also designed the pyramid entrance of the Louvre, enclosed the courtyard on the south. The Meier building is much more than the cafe in the corner of the courtyard; it's about twice the size of the Pei but that part of the three story addition can't be seen inside the courtyard. 

"In the Courtyard," wc/ink on paper

This is a watercolor and ink sketch done similarly to many others. I begin with a graphite drawing, add watercolor, then ink and then more color if needed.  

The Painter

Most artists acknowledge many influences on their work, from their families to their home countries to mentors and masters from the past. In my case, one of mine is J.C. Leyendecker, an exceptional illustrator from a century or so ago. Leyendecker was an outstanding draftsman whose work is immediately recognizable once you know it. Today he is overshadowed by other famous illustrators--Norman Rockwell for example. I've studied Leyendecker's work and done a number of copies of his works, particularly interested in his brushwork and color palette. 

"Studies," J.C. Leyendecker

This is sourced from a Leyendecker illustration that can be found online showing an elderly painter in smock and beret, cooking a sausage over a charcoal stove. The artist is probably poor, surviving on not much. The work seems to have been intended as a wry comment on Thanksgiving and feasting. But the smock, beard, eyebrows and the figure itself were more interesting to me. Instead of an outright copy, I decided to use the master's work as a jumping off point. 

In my painting, the old painter is not cooking but instead is looking directly at us, the viewers, and holding out a loaded paintbrush. The implication intended is that we the viewers are the subject of his painting. As you can see below, my work owes a great deal to Leyendecker's but is an original idea superimposed on his.

"The Painter," oil on panel, 16x12, 2008. Private collection

 

Greening Iowa

The season seems to have turned at last. Days are longer, skies brighter, and crucially the world is greening. In the parks and along waterways, honeysuckle is lush and leafy. The grasses are that deep arresting green of springtime. And now the giants of the woods are greening at their tops. 

"Spring in Waterworks Park," wc/ink

The sketch group, mindful of new flowering in Waterworks Park, elected almost to the person to sketch there last week. The sun was bright but the wind was strong and cold. I sat on a bench in the sun, back to the wind, and drew this sketch in a fair bit of detail using pencil. When I got cold I went back to my car and inked the drawing while I warmed up then went back outside to paint. After that it was again time for the car and a few finishing grace notes with ink and paint. 

 

Mountain Study

"Mountain Study," oil on panel, 6x8

When you live here in the upper Midwest, you don't see mountains. There are big hills, even distant vistans, but no true mountains. Most of Iowa is rolling or flat plains. One of my personal exercises is to imagine other landscapes and other climes. Clearly, either photos or previous travels, or both, have been useful. 

In Mountain Study I was interested not only in the trees and colors but in depth. To suggest distant mountains meant light values and virtually no identifiable edges, with distant colors going bluer and bluer and more and more pale. Studies like this can translate into believable works on a much larger scale.